DAY 4 “IS THAT YOUR CAR?”

Meet Harmony and her trail dog, Stella

We ate breakfast by the Kimball River, which for me was a cup of coffee and a “Kate Bar” (they’re hard to find but worth the search), then left Kimball Creek steeled for a long, arduous hike into Pincushion Mountain. This would be the most intense day of climbing we would have. And it was hot. We thought Marci's last day would be the next day and we had to get her into Grand Marais and back up to Magney SP where, thanks to the good graces of Ranger Dan and Ranger Meadow at Judge Magney SP, we’d left her car.

The morning hike was relaxing and…not that anything on this trail is ordinary…was similar to other parts we’d gone through on previous days. We hiked over Scrub Oak Vista, past a couple of campsites. We stopped at one for a rest and a snack then continued hiking on mostly technical trail, over bridges and make shift bridges made of stones or a single catawampus board, and through tall stands of red pines carpeted with low-growing verdant vegetation. This particular section made us stop and look up.

We reached Wildflower Hill which lit us up. All along the trail we were graced with all sorts and kinds of wildflowers in full, vibrant bloom and fruit waiting to be picked and snacked. But when we made the climb up this sheer rock-faced mountain we were graced with unabashedly beautiful wildflowers standing proud with Lake Superior as their backdrop. Had I been told this would be the end of the line for me, I would have been happily satisfied. 

But it wasn’t the end of the line, we had 7-8 hard miles in front of us. We had the Devil Track River Gorge to contend with. 

Within a couple of miles of Wildflower Hill, we met up with Woods Creek and followed it on its eastward flow for 2 miles. Woods Creek is not a creek by definition. It’s a strong flowing river that has been inundated with spring breakup debris with its banks sustaining notable damage in parts. But it is a beauty and we loved hiking along next to it hearing it tumble and gurgle and feeling the coolness come up from it. It descends pretty seriously as it heads toward Superior. The trail does the same. It’s chock full of twisted and tangled roots and jutting rocks. So as leisurely as you might want to be along here, you have to be vigilant. 

We hiked strong and talked and talked (as we did throughout almost all of this trip) and made great time. We were encouraged when we came to Lindskog Road Trailhead and saw a singular silver car in the small parking area. We had 5 miles to go at this point and it was 3:30-4:00.

This next section was tough. Really tough. It was as though the trail said, “You think you’ve seen hard? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet baby.” You see, on this trail, for every beautiful mountain summit, smooth and soft strand of trail, easy descent, glorious vista view, there is a high price to pay and we were about to fork it over.

After we’d hiked on decent, stable boardwalks and forest floor trail we started climbing, and descending. At the top of one of the descents and at the best moment possible we met a woman running with a dog (whose coat shone like ebony and was as strong as…well as our dog Roux). She had a big welcoming smile that, without speaking a word, said, “Welcome to my hood girls!” So I stopped her with a quick and exact, “Hi. What are you doing? (and) Is that your car in the lot, because if it is, could you give us a ride?” (I said it really really fast).

Some explanation here. I am generally a shyer, less in-yor-face-sista kind of gal. But the trail does things to you. It brings out parts of your personality that harbor way back in the depths of your being that, quite frankly, you might not even be aware of. And this is what let loose and took over when I saw her gleaming smile. She was an “Answer”. Eventually, and with the much needed behind-my-back editing done by Marci, it was made known we did not have a life or death emergency but we were in transportation desperation. She didn’t blink. She didn’t waver. She didn’t hum-and-shuffle. 

She sprung into action as though she’d been waiting all day for this opportunity. She told us it wasn’t her car in the parking area, but she had one at Pincushion and she’d take us wherever we needed to go. She just had to finish the 14, or was it 16(?)mile run with Stella…”And they MOVE!” and would probably beat us to the parking lot. We exchanged phone numbers and names and off she went in one direction and us in the other, but not before she advised us to not hike into Pincushion because the climbs were only getting started, but to stop and stay at East Devil Track campsite. We would thank ourselves later (and we did…and her as well).

The climbs and descents in this section are rock scrambling, quad-burning climbs. They’re long, steep and eroded with loose rock and dirt for footing much of the time. Just when you think you’ve reached the top, the trail curves and another huge investment of climb waits for you. It feels never-ending. I’ve run a lot of ultra trail marathons and am not a stranger to this type of terrain, it’s actually common and part of the deal, but with 26-28 pounds on your back, it is intensified.

We were closing in on our long day of hiking and were fading fast but we had no choice but to keep moving. True to her word she met up with us as we were (what felt like) crawling  along. We stopped, revised and nailed down the plan, and off she and Stella went.

We came to the campsite that was “all that and a bag of chips”; it was perfect. We stayed in the small campsite (per Harmony’s recommendation as the larger site across the river was loud with river noise) and were able to really relax at camp for the very first time on this trip.

Wait until you hear what happened next.